Special Rules
Voice of Command
Giving Orders is what the Guard do. While Take Aim is going to be the most common one used, they are all useful. I don't mean situational either, I mean "I will do this thing with this unit this turn because I have access to this order" useful. Consider Voxes for your units to extend the range.
Regimental Orders
Each Regiment has it's own, unique Order. They all affect how the army plays and influences how you approach building the army.
Grinding Advance
Allows Leman Russ' to shoot their turret weapon twice if they move slowly. Doubles the firepower of your main battle tanks, and is a godsend to tank armies.
HQ
Lord Castellan Creed
Double the range of a normal Officer, and gives out an extra Order. As a bonus, if he is your Warlord you gain 2 extra Command Points. He does have a fixed Warlord trait and can't take Relics though.
Company Commander
You'll want as many of these as you can to Order your other units. Good thing they are cheap.
Tank Commander
In a Leman Russ, so can Grinding Advance, and can Order other tanks. I would not recommend making one your Warlord though, as they have too many Wounds to hide and aren't as resilient as Toughness 8 would suggest.
Knight Commander Pask
A Tank Commander with better Ballistic Skill and an extra Order. Worth the upgrade for the Ballistic Skill, still not recommended as a Warlord.
Commissar Yarrick
On top of the normal Commissar abilities, he gives a bubble of re-roll 1s to hit, or re-roll misses if the target is Orks. He also has a 3+ feel no pain, that only protects his final wound. Very characterful but very expensive. Save him for the fun games.
Lord Commissar
Now reduced in price, they attempt to make it harder for units to flee. Not sure they are useful post their original nerf.
Colonel 'Iron Hand' Straken
For a similar price to Creed, you swap the extra command abilities for assault prowess. He gives nearby units extra attacks too. An interesting addition to an assault Guard army.
Tempestor Prime
You should always consider the Command Rod to give this unit an extra Order. The greatest asset of this unit is the ability to deep strike and put the Order giving model where you need the Order. Especially supporting Tempestus Scions.
Primaris Psyker
I believe they are the cheapest Psyker in the game that isn't otherwise hampered in some way. Taking some of these to buff your screen units will frustrate your opponent greatly, while also providing some Psychic defense.
Troops
Infantry Squad
Cheap, standard stats, the backbone of the army. You'll want plenty of these to hold objectives, provide heavy weapons and fill out Detachments for more Command Points.
Conscripts
Not as cheap as they used to be, but come in large units. They make great screens. Orders aren't reliable and you will want some Morale mitigation.
Militarum Tempestus Scions
They can Deep Strike and are great at tackling armoured targets with their -2 Save Mod. Give them 2 weapons of your choice for every 10 models and choose the targets you want to hunt carefully. Support them with Tempestor Primes.
Elites
Master of Ordnance
The barrage is surprisingly okay, but giving your artillery tanks a re-roll 1s to hit long range targets is amazing for the cost. Just beware of your opponent closing the gap a 36" is quite a large area.
Platoon Commander
If you want access to more orders in your army and have run out of HQ slots. Otherwise unremarkable.
Command Squad
A cheap unit for adding utility to your army. The Medi-pack can return slain guardsman to increase a units lifespan, the standard adds Leadership to help with Morale and the Vox increases order range. I wouldn't fill the unit with special weapons as 4 models is easy to kill with basic guns.
Colour Sergeant Kell
He gives a nearby Officer one extra order and lets nearby units re-roll Morale tests. A good support character for Cadian armies.
Special Weapons Squad
There are better ways of delivering multiple special weapons to the enemy.
Veterans
No longer Troops in this Edition. The increased Ballistic Skill is good, but the Rule of Three hurts this unit.
Sergeant Harker
An Assault "Heavy" Bolter and re-rolls 1s for nearby Catachans. A good character for that Regiment.
Militarum Tempestus Command Squad
All the utility of the regular Command Squad, now with Deep Strike and Hot-shot Lasguns. Can carry more special weapons than a regular Militarum Tempestus Squad, but they aren't as good for filling out Battalions.
Ministorum Priest
Wants to be in combat to use Zealot. Don't do this, the Priest will die. The bubble of extra Attacks is interesting, makes a large unit of Conscripts scary or a large unit of Ogryns terrifying.
Crusaders
An odd unit, seeks to be in assault as they only have Power Sword and Storm Shield, but they otherwise have the Strength and Toughness of Guardsmen. They have a limited Deny. Essentially though, everything you might want them to do is done better by other units.
Tech-Priest Enginseer
Keeps your Tanks alive. Has no purpose other than this, but it's a great purpose. If it can stop your opponent killing a Tank or move that Tank back up a degradation band, then it's been well worth it's points.
Servitors
They give you Infantry access to a couple of heavy weapons you wouldn't otherwise have, but can't receive orders. Not worth taking.
Commissar
Very cheap now so great for filling Brigades. Also gives some Morale mitigation.
Officer of the Fleet
Lets you give your Flyers re-roll ones and has an interesting way of doling out Mortal Wounds once per game. At 25 points, if you are also taking some Flyers, this unit is worthwhile.
Wyrdvane Psykers
Cheaper than a Primaris but with a limited Deny. There is a better unit for this role.
Astropath
Cheaper than the Wyrdvanes, but with a standard Deny. The limitation to Smite isn't an issue if you Smite with this unit before others or plan on using it's Psykana power. Can also remove the Cover bonus from a unit.
Ogryn Bodyguard
Can save Wounds from your other characters, but I'd rather just take Ogryns or Bullgryns.
Ogryns
Their guns are good for thinning our screening units and then they can hit something hard in assault. You rarely see this unit, but it also makes a great counter assault unit to run into a unit that's reached your lines.
Bullgryns
Great for counter assaulting high toughness units that reach your lines like Dreadnoughts and Maulerfiends.
Nork Deddog
A better Ogryn Bodyguard, but can attack in the Fight phase when he is slain. Cool flavour, but not an amazing use of points.
Ratlings
Snipers that can move after firing, which mitigates the Heavy nature of their rifles if you can plan a turn ahead. Can also Infiltrate to help hamper opposing Deep Strike and screen your units.
Fast Attack
Hellhounds
Strength 6 Infantry clearing that auto hits. The Chem and Melta cannons are okay, but Inferno is where it is at.
Scout Sentinels
Easy to kill, but they can get heavy weapons set up further up the board at the start of the game.
Armoured Sentinels
Not much more survivable for the extra points. I'd stick to Scout Sentinels.
Heavy Support
Heavy Weapons Squad
A very cheap way of getting multiple heavy weapons into the army. Mortars are obviously great as you can hide them and ignore line of sight for shooting. But any grouping of three weapons is good.
Basilisks
Ignore line of sight but with better guns. I like equipping these with Heavy Flamers to discourage assault too.
Wyverns
Remember Masters of Ordnance to make this shooting better.
Hydras
Anti-Flyer weapons, best against the units that Fly but don't have Hard to Hit. Still not a great unit.
Manticore
Better against Vehicles than the other options, but with so many shots it's good against everything. Take a Master of Ordnance to re-roll 1s. It's only downside is you can't take it in squadrons.
Deathstrike
IF it fires, it can dole out a devastating amount of Mortal Wounds. Not recommended if you want reliability.
Leman Russ Battle Tanks
The Rule of Three hurts these tanks, as all of your Leman Russ variants are a single Datasheet. You can take them as squadrons though, still allowing you up to nine in 2000 points. Some turrets are better than others.
Dedicated Transport
Chimera
A great transport with a range of weapon options.
Taurox
An easier to kill transport, but is faster.
Taurox Prime
As easy to kill as the regular Taurox, but with better weapon options and Ballistic Skill. Can only transport Storm Troopers and Commissars though.
Flyer
Valkyries
Fast transports that are also gunboats. Not only does it have the option of Hovering, but it gains +1 to hit if it does so. Units can also Disembark after it moves, making it great for getting units to Objectives.
Lord of War
Baneblade
Eleven barrels of Death. Take some number of sponsons and go to town. For the player that likes all of the guns on one model. I'll be comparing the other super heavies to this.
Banehammer
The Tremor Cannon slows units down, making this great against assault units. Can also transport units and allows 10 models to shoot from it. A great mobile bunker, I'll be comparing the other mobile bunkers to this.
Banesword
The anti-vehicle super heavy.
Doomhammer
The anti-vehicle mobile bunker.
Hellhammer
Shorter ranged than the Baneblade, but ignores the Cover bonus.
Shadowsword
The anti-Titanic super heavy, this makes opposing Lords of War very nervous.
Stormlord
The anti-infantry mobile bunker, it also has a much larger transport capacity.
Stormsword
I think the other super heavies are better than this option as it's main gun is unremarkable.
Regimental Doctrine + Advisors and Auxilla
All of these lead to armies that operate differently on the battlefield and the units in the army that can't take a Regiment keyword don't stop you gaining the benefit.
Stratagems
Stand-out Stratagems
- Crush Them!
- Jury Rigging
- Preliminary Bombardment
- Defensive Gunners
- Fight to the Death
- Vengeance for Cadia!
- Overlapping Fields of Fire
Grand Strategist is so good it drowns out the other ones.
Heirlooms of Conquest
Stand-out Relics
- The Laurels of Command
- The Dagger of Tu'Sakh
- Kurov's Aquila
- Relic of Lost Cadia
The Psykana Discipline has some great buff powers and the rest of the powers are very meh.
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